NARUC Resolution Drafts Address Technology Changes, FCC Mechanisms

Many draft proposals focus on changes to technology and address potential federal changes in light of that. One NARUC draft proposed an update on slamming rules. The FCC should “update the current rules and regulations on slamming by (1) requiring third-party verification to include mandatory recording of any contact in which customers are solicited for consent to changes in services or providers, (2) by applying slamming rules uniformly to all voice services including traditional wireline, interconnected and over-the-top VoIP, and wireless; and (3) by requiring the prominent notice of the number the customer may call for assistance of the FCC and/or State agency.” Wireline, VoIP and wireless companies should report billing complaint trends as well as “spikes driven by activity of specific third-party vendors” to both state and federal entities, according to the draft.

"NARUC encourages member commissions to continue their efforts to give a high priority to monitoring and evaluating cybersecurity threats to utility systems in collaboration with those agencies and entities having cyber threat management and mitigation expertise,” another draft proposes. It’s the sole resolution the NARUC critical infrastructure committee will consider this summer. PUCs should work with all sorts of partners on cyber threats and become “increasingly knowledgeable about cybersecurity threats to the relevant utility and pipeline sectors and to maintain an open dialogue with their regulated utilities to ensure adequate resources and expertise are being applied to deter, detect, and respond to cyber attacks,” the draft says.

Make sure to consult “an adequately funded” Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service on proposed or future technology transition trials, one draft proposes to tell the FCC. That resolution reaffirms NARUC’s comments on VoIP and IP numbering trials “that the FCC should apply numbering resource utilization and optimization rules and obligations equally to all service providers,” it said. “States and the FCC should work together to jointly examine the best way that the interconnection of next generation communications network technologies should be accomplished in order to ensure that the public interest in the efficient and fair utilization of numbering resources will be protected,” it proposes to resolve.

The extreme storms of the last year prompted another of the drafts. It calls for state and national regulators to develop policies for ensuring companies’ commercial backup power “regardless of the technology and the communications protocols used to provide the services,” according to that text.

Two resolutions address FCC mechanisms. The FCC should “ensure that the National Lifeline Accountability Database and the eligibility database are available before the end of 2013 so that ETCs may use these databases in 2014,” one resolution proposes. Under this policy, NARUC would ask the FCC to make sure “legitimate participants continue to receive the benefits” of Lifeline, root out abuse, waste and fraud collaboratively with states and “implement a mechanism for States and/or USAC to efficiently administer determination of eligibility and recertification for consumers,” according to the draft. Another resolution draft calls for the FCC to allow states to review and comment on any changes to the Connect America Fund Phase II model and would recommend that any changes to the model for price-cap carrier rural service areas should not have a bearing on how the FCC approaches USF recovery mechanisms.